Monday, 2 May 2011

Distimo: More free apps in Android Market than App Store

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market now offers more free mobile applications than Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) rival App Store, according to new data published by app marketplace analytics firm Distimo. Android Market now touts over 134,000 free apps, compared to almost 122,000 free selections in the App Store. The increase of free Android apps is one facet of Android Market's overall growth: According to Distimo, at its current pace Android Market is expected to offer more total mobile applications than any other store approximately five months from now, followed in descending order by the App Store, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone Marketplace, Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry App World and Nokia's (NYSE:NOK) Ovi Store.
For now, the App Store remains in front with over 330,000 applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, with the iPad App Store offering over 75,000 tablet-optimized solutions. Android Market is next at more than 206,000 apps. From there, the decline is steep: Ovi Store checks in at almost 30,000, BlackBerry App World is close to 27,000 and Windows Phone Marketplace trails at close to 12,000. "Only moderate growth was observed in most of the application stores over the course of the past several months, however overall growth picked up again in March," Distimo notes. "The App Store for iPhone is the largest store in terms of all applications available--however, it was among the slowest growing stores in terms of relative growth [last month]."
Distimo adds that despite increasing competition from Android and BlackBerry tablets, the iPad enjoys a sizable lead in the category. Daily downloads in the Top 100 overall paid and free applications for iPad combined exceed 500,000, corresponding to daily revenues of about $400,000, excluding in-app purchases.
For more:
- download the Distimo report
Related articles:Distimo: In-app purchases now half of iPhone developer revenuesDistimo: 60 percent of Android apps are freeDistimo: Games still dominate App Store downloads